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How much ends up in your bin, and why care?

At some time or another (probably more often than we would like to admit!) we have all thrown out a piece of fruit, stale bread, wilting vegetables, or leftover dinner. However, did you know that this little habit, combined, is contributing to 800,000 tonnes of food waste each year in NSW alone? This equates to 315 kg of food thrown out in your household, costing you about $1036 each year!

Not only is our wasteful behaviour hurting our wallets, but it is also costing the Earth. Food waste in landfills can cause excessive nutrients to leach into the ground causing land and ground water contamination, not to mention the effects that the gas emissions of decomposing foods have. In fact, when food waste, together with other organic materials, breaks down in landfill, it produces a vast amount of methane gas – the equivalent to putting an extra 117,000 cars on the road!

The Love Food Hate Waste initiative

To help put a stop to the huge amount of food waste being discarded by households in NSW, Holroyd City Council has joined the Love Food Hate Waste program, an innovative program managed by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA), designed to raise awareness of the impacts of food waste on our households’ budgets and the Earth.

The Love Food Hate Waste initiative

To help put a stop to the huge amount of food waste being discarded by households in NSW, Holroyd City Council has joined the Love Food Hate Waste program, an innovative program managed by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA), designed to raise awareness of the impacts of food waste on our households’ budgets and the Earth.

As part of our commitment to this program, Holroyd City Council has developed a cookbook, iPhone/iPad app and website which offer practical tips, advice and recipes to help you achieve food waste avoidance in your home. You can even share your knowledge by submitting your own leftovers recipes.

We are excited to think that with each new recipe that is posted, more people will be expanding their knowledge of how to cook delicious meals using leftovers, and together reduce food waste around the world.

Why compost?

Home composting and worm farming represent recycling in the purest form. By placing fruit and vegetable scraps in a home composting system, you will not only be reducing the waste you're disposing of by approximately 50%, but you will also be making your own organic fertiliser that adds vital nutrients to the soil, creating healthier plants and gardens.

Why compost?

Home composting and worm farming represent recycling in the purest form. By placing fruit and vegetable scraps in a home composting system, you will not only be reducing the waste you're disposing of by approximately 50%, but you will also be making your own organic fertiliser that adds vital nutrients to the soil, creating healthier plants and gardens.

Watch in your language — Composting & Worm farming

Composting

English

ગુજરાતી

हिन्दी

中文

العربية

粵語

فارسی

Worm farming

English

ગુજરાતી

हिन्दी

中文

العربية

粵語

فارسی

Get involved

Composting/worm farming – how to set it all up

It’s easy to set up your own worm farm or compost heap. You just need a few items and a good spot for them to go. There are a few tips to follow, though, to help make sure they are a success at your place. Here, you can get the step-by-step instructions for composting and worm farms.

Food Waste & Organics Quiz

Take this quiz to find out how well you know your food and garden waste. Hint: all of the answers can be found on this website.

Food Waste & Organics Quiz

Are you a food and organics wastesmarty pants?

0/10

Great job! You certainly know what to do with your food and organics waste and you can easily help others to be a food and organics waste guru too!You are almost there! Have a quick read over ourFood Waste Section and you will be a quiz whiz in no time!Great start! Read our Food Waste Section and have another go. You’ll soon be on your way to a perfect score!

What shouldn’t you feed your worms?

Worms don’t like citrus peel or onions, so keep these out of your worm farm.

Worm farms are not suitable for people who live in a unit.

True

False

MOVE ON

Keep a worm farm on your balcony or start a community compost heap.

Compost heaps need air to turn into fertiliser.

True

False

MOVE ON

Air helps to break down your compost more quickly and keeps it healthy.

Brown garden vegetation such as leaves and twigs are not suitable for composting.

True

False

MOVE ON

Add a good mix of brown and green garden prunings to your compost bin.

Council offers a mulching service for garden prunings.

True

False

FINISH

Call Holroyd City Council on 9840 9840!

Love Your Leftovers – the movement and the app

When Holroyd City Council’s Love Your Leftovers Cookbook hit the shelves in 2011, we were blown away by how many locals not only wanted to read other people’s recipes but also have their own recipes published. Since then we have developed an iPhone and iPad application and a website with the support of the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) under their Love Food Hate Waste program.We are now planning the next phase, with the development of an android app. when we found out that the NSW grant was still providing funding for important community initiatives, we just knew we had to give more people the opportunity to share recipes with others who are passionate about cooking and minimising food waste. To date we have had over 40,000 downloads of the app from across the globe.

We are excited to think that with each new recipe that is posted, more people will be expanding their knowledge of how to cook delicious meals using leftovers and together, reducing food waste around the world. We hope that you enjoy our app and website, and are inspired to Love Your Leftovers.

Contact

Give us a call

If you still have a question, we are happy to have a chat. Call our Customer Services section on 9840 9840 and just let them know what it’s about so they can best direct you to the right person in our team.

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